Battle Speeches

[ivoignob]

In MTW I really appreciated, that at least, there were three different languages, spoken by the generals of the different religions, like the chargecry of the muslims ("hucum"). Also the battle speeches, the screaming of the soldiers, almost the overall sound during battle seemed to be much more authentic than in RTW to my ears. What do you think about this, and do you think/wish, that they will include different languages for the different factions in MTW II? Is this realizable or do they have their reasons, not to do so?

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

What I didn't like about MTW was that it had the Byzantines speaking Russian. As to the "sound of battle" I think maybe it was better in MTW.

What I would like is Pre-Battle Speeches like in RTW 1.2.

Why did those get cut from 1.3 anyway?

[zakalwe]

Were they? Weird.

They're in 1.5

[TB666]

Very true, they didn't cut the speeches out.
There were no new speeches for BI but in RTW they are still there and working.

[Bob the Insane]

So what do you think more likely, speeches actually in French and German and so on, or the speeches in english with a dodgy French or German or wahtever accent (ass appropriate)?

[x-dANGEr]

I'd like to see someone speaking Arabic for sure.. (I don't know what other cultures spoke by that time, but it would be nice to hear them in different languages/accents).

[DukeofSerbia]

I'd like to see someone speaking Arabic for sure.. (I don't know what other cultures spoke by that time, but it would be nice to hear them in different languages/accents).

As I know in MTW Arabic and Turkish units have voices on Arabic.:book:

[Xardas]

I'd hate it, if they make Russians speak English with a horrible accent. I hate Red Alert, Freedom Fighters and so on... If you have no idea about the country, then just shut-up. Ага, если медведей сделают буит ваще стёбно, если не так грустно. США МАСТ ДАЙ! МАСТ ДАЙ ФОРЕВА!
Sorry for the off-topic. :)
I'd like to hear at list 5 languages: English, French, German, Arabic, Spanish. And Aztec. :laugh4: Remember Age Of Conquerors 2. :)
Of course understand, we must, that it's difficult to provide a good and well-made soundtrack in many languages. Like it's not only "Hooray!" they're yellin'...

[ivoignob]

I'd hate it, if they make Russians speak English with a horrible accent.

That's exactly what I don't want to see again in MTW II.

[TB666]

So what do you think more likely, speeches actually in French and German and so on, or the speeches in english with a dodgy French or German or wahtever accent (ass appropriate)?
Do you really need to ask ??
I think you know the answer to that question already :laugh4:

[mfberg]

Just have the generals speak in their own languages, and have a translator available for them rather than making them speak with atrocious accents.

mfberg

[Craterus]

I want to be able to understand pre-battle speeches. They're usually quite funny. I don't think they'll be funny in French, or Russian, or Latin or whatever because I can't speak those languages.

At least provide subtitles.

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

Faction-specific languages will absolutely not happen.

MTW didn't have it. All there was was Latin for Western factions, Arabic (?) for Muslim factions, and Russian for the Orthodox factions.

RTW didn't have it, and was even lazier. All we got was terribly-accented English.

Given the choice, I'd prefer MTW. But I think it will be closer to RTW. It costs time and money to determine which factions speak what language and then find people to speak it convincingly. And note that, for example, medieval (middle?) English is different from modern English, and such is true with other languages. If CA spent time and money on hundreds or thousands of voice samples and speeches, it would delay the release by a while, I would think.

If CA truly supported modding efforts, they would selected quality voicemods and make them official. That would be sweet, downloading new voices in faction-specific languages. But this is unlikely, in my opinion. :wall:

[Katana]

If you can't do it right, don't do it at all. The pre-battle speeches just become annoying over time anyways, so why bother? It's totally fiscally unrealistic to hope for realistic ones. If CA does them at all, it will be to pander to the crowd of gamers who play Halo 2 and believe EA games is a good publisher. I just hope they have an option to skip them.

[Justiciar]

R:TW's accents were painful to listen to. Subtitled languages ftw, so long as they get it right (e.g. English generals speaking French).

[z2ei]

If you can't do it right, don't do it at all. The pre-battle speeches just become annoying over time anyways, so why bother? It's totally fiscally unrealistic to hope for realistic ones. If CA does them at all, it will be to pander to the crowd of gamers who play Halo 2 and believe EA games is a good publisher. I just hope they have an option to skip them.


*rolls eyes*

Look, if you hate the pre-battle speeches, you hate them. But..

What does a pre-battle speech have anything to do with Halo or EA or console gaming in general? It's not like a speech is going to convince anyone to buy it. It's just a (very) childish attempt an an insult.

Besides, they're already skippable.

Rome's didn't really bother me, but the cheesy accents were laughable. It did have some good points, though..particularly the units that hurl insults before battle. Some of the speeches themselves were actually pretty good, but were fairly rare. Most were just generic.

[Mooks]

REAL battle speaches were quite dirty. Usually the general made some insult about them (Or their mom) and said if they didnt fight well he would kill them himself.

I personally hated the speaches in RTW. Caesar used to call his legions his boys, and or a Roman swearword. Not to mention that those speaches wouldnt encourage anybody. Some of the speaches were funny...But after hearing them 1 hundred times with every faction in the game they got old.

Moderator note: edited for language.

[Ciaran]

There are prebattle speeches in MTW ~:confused: How come I never hear them?

As for RTW, only the ones of the Romans were really elaborate and done according to the situation, the ones of the other factions are generic. Since I´ve got the German version, I don´t know about the accents in the English version, in mine they´re, well, accented but tolerable.
It would be neat to have speeches like the Roman ones for all factions - you can skip them if you don´t like them, after all - but there are more important issues.

[ivoignob]

The prebattle speeches are one thing, the speeches during battle another. IMHO the overall sound during battle seemed to be more realistic in MTW. I want that in MTW II again. No unit cards, screaming an ugly and funny "YES SIR" all the time you click on a card etc. The was a constant noise level during (at least huge battles) which they took out in RTW. I hope it will come back.

[buujin]

Leave em out.

CA would do better spending thier time on other things.

[Orda Khan]

Did anyone listen to them? I never used a Roman faction for a simple reason....that awful American accent. Battle sounds (apart from the loose of arrows) were better in MTW. Another thing I want to see dropped is the constant in battle music of RTW. Let's have music to march to and then a brief engagement burst but then let's just hear the sounds of battle

......Orda

[Rufus]

English generals speaking French

That wouldn't always be accurate. Certainly Norman and Angevin kings and nobles would've spoken French to their more elite soldiers, who were probably also Norman or other French extraction. But I'd imagine the first language for many of the men in the ranks - spearmen and the like - would've been English. And later on, say after 1300 or so, all the pre-battle speeches would probably be in English for English armies. English gradually overtook French among the upper classes by the late Middle Ages. Wasn't Edward III the first King of England who spoke English as his first language (I think his grandfather Longshanks spoke English but French was the language was raised on, primarily)?

[Lord Adherbal]

I didn't like the speeches or unit voices much either. Funny as they may be, it will completly destroy the dark and dirty atmosphere a game based on medieval warfare should have.

[Martok]

I rather liked the pre-battle speeches in Rome, actually, and wouldn't mind seeing them return in Medieval 2. To me, they added some much-needed flavor to the game (which I admit I feel was lacking in Rome). So long as they keep the option to skip it, I don't see the harm in having them.

That said, I agree they could certainly be improved. For one thing, they need to have to better voice actors this time--not just for the speeches, but for the battles in general as well. The voice-acting in Shogun and MTW, while minimal, was still much better than in Rome. It would also be nice if the repertoire of words and phrases were greatly expanded, as I can't deny the speeches did start to get a little repititious after a while.

[Hambut_bulge]

Bring back Sean Pertwee for the Catholic faction pre-battle speeches (assuming they have them) and other voice-over bits!

[Bob the Insane]

Personally I liked them a lot, I liked the way they reflected the battle, the battlefield and the General's personality...

I disliked the fact that only the Romans got the really detailed ones and I agree with those above that the voice acting was not really up to the same standard of presentation as the rest of the game...

[Kraxis]

Personally I liked them a lot, I liked the way they reflected the battle, the battlefield and the General's personality...

I disliked the fact that only the Romans got the really detailed ones and I agree with those above that the voice acting was not really up to the same standard of presentation as the rest of the game...
That mirror's my opinion.

The voicejob itself was relatively poor considering the superb Japanese accents in STW or just the good voices of MTW (though I was quite surprised to hear the Byz talking Russian).

I would prefer if the speeches would be in english, accented but in a proper way. You lose a whole lot of the meaning if you understand nothing of what is being said, even if you have subtitles.
But the units should speak whatever language would be appropriate. Latin for the Catholics would not be a bad choice, just don't make them all speak latin with english accent (though that is of course a minor issue to me).

[screwtype]

So what do you think more likely, speeches actually in French and German and so on, or the speeches in english with a dodgy French or German or wahtever accent (ass appropriate)?

Yeah, why not? Speeches in the actual foreign languages, with subtitles of course.

Not likely to happen though...

[Ultras DVSC]

It was great in STW that you could choose beetwen english and japanese voice. With this little option they threw a lot on the gamefeeling. This time it would mean a bit more work, but it would worth it, it's a cert..

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

Didn't skipping prebattle speeches lead to a negative trait? I'm fairly certain I skipped a speech once and later found out my general "sucks at giving speeches" or some similar trait.

Meaning we had to listen to the stuff to avoid a negative trait. A strictly fair idea in theory, rather foolish and annoying in practice. :wall:

[VeroImperatoreDiRoma]

Less battle speeches for sure,especially now alexander has put the idea of negative traits into my head.

Less speeches more battle cries and orders on field and before battle commences hearing your troops singing nationalistic or even biggoted tunes is enough to get your blood pumping before the battle.

More variety in less categories.

[Katana]

*rolls eyes*
What does a pre-battle speech have anything to do with Halo or EA or console gaming in general? It's not like a speech is going to convince anyone to buy it. It's just a (very) childish attempt an an insult.


I didn't mean to imply that only console gamers appreciated the pre-battle speeches. I was refering to the stereotype/archetype that exists among hardcore gamers regarding the rest of the gaming population. I think it safe to say that the majority of gamers are ignorant of the history that most Total War games take place in. (Note: this is not to say that I'm somehow better or above these gamers - I'd never even heard of Sengoku Jidai until I installed Shogun.) Consuquently, most gamers are more concerned with the cinematic value of these games (as well as their ability to entertain) than they are chuffed about historical accuracy. Then again, it's just my two cents, and I am a fairly cynical bloke, so take this for whatever it's worht.

[screwtype]

..........

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

I think you're all taking this way too seriously. The accents of the Romans in Rome sounded more Australian or even Devonshire than American. The Centuriam definately sounded like a Russel Crows inpersonator.

The speeches should be in English. Why? They are there to entertain, not to be historically accurate. I like historical accuracy but up to a point. The pre-battle speeches are about history they're about fun and they should be in whatever language the game is in, otherwise the humour will be lost.

[Ludens]

Faction-specific languages will absolutely not happen.

MTW didn't have it. All there was was Latin for Western factions, Arabic (?) for Muslim factions, and Russian for the Orthodox factions.

RTW didn't have it, and was even lazier. All we got was terribly-accented English.

Given the choice, I'd prefer MTW. But I think it will be closer to RTW. It costs time and money to determine which factions speak what language and then find people to speak it convincingly. And note that, for example, medieval (middle?) English is different from modern English, and such is true with other languages. If CA spent time and money on hundreds or thousands of voice samples and speeches, it would delay the release by a while, I would think.

If CA truly supported modding efforts, they would selected quality voicemods and make them official. That would be sweet, downloading new voices in faction-specific languages. But this is unlikely, in my opinion. :wall:
I agree with all your statements. R:TW's accents were laughable, so I prefer the M:TW-way. English pre-battle speeches wouldn't bother me that much though, but please leave out the silly accents.


There are prebattle speeches in MTW How come I never hear them?
No, but the units shout their orders in Latin, Russian or Arabic. Not very accurate either (I doubt most Catholics spoke Latin, the Byzantines certainly didn't speak Russian, and Turkish soldiers wouldn't be adressed in Arabic), but it gave far more immersion than the R:TW voices.

[screwtype]

Yeah, I will certainly agree with that. If all the battle speeches are going to be in English, forget those embarrassingly bad "foreign" accents and just have straightforward English. After all, you only play one faction at a time anyhow...

[King Yngvar]

speeches actually in French and German and so on, or the speeches in english with a dodgy French or German or wahtever accent (ass appropriate)?

I think they gonna go with the accents...

I wouldn't like to see speeches in French or German, simply because I understand little German and not a word in French. Please, keep the speeches at least in English, but get rid of the stereotypical accents. England could have clear English dialects while everyone else could have plain English without any particular accent at all.

[doc_bean]

I actually liked the RTW speeches, weird accents and all :hide:

[Martok]

I actually liked the RTW speeches, weird accents and all :hide:


Hey, I liked the battle speeches too, but the accents (and the game's voice-acting overall) definitely left something to be desired. I have a lot of respect for the Marines which help defend my country, but they shouldn't be doing voice-acting as Roman centurions, that's for sure! ~;p